Former congresswoman Katie Hill wants to see her husband prosecuted for cyber exploitation and is seeking 'redemption' after her relationship with a campaign staffer

• Business Insider spoke with former Rep. Katie Hill on Tuesday about her resignation from Congress, seeking "redemption" following her relationship with a campaign staffer, and her forthcoming political podcast.
• The 32-year-old Democrat is out with a new book, "She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality," which is part-memoir, part-feminist political manifesto.
• Hill said she wants her estranged husband prosecuted under revenge porn laws for allegedly leaking nude photos of her. Hill will file a civil suit against him "very soon."
• The former lawmaker is very concerned that Democrats will struggle to vote en masse by mail in the fall, but is "optimistic" voters will oust the Republican who won a May special election to replace her.
• Hill says her podcast, "Naked Politics," will focus on the "sordid" and "secret" side of Washington, DC and help people understand how national politics work.

Business Insider spoke with former congresswoman Katie Hill on Tuesday about her resignation from Congress last fall, seeking "redemption" following her relationship with a campaign staffer, and her forthcoming political podcast. The 32-year-old Democrat is out with a new book, "She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality," which is part-memoir, part-feminist political manifesto.

Business Insider: You resigned last fall after tabloids and right-wing media published nude photos of you with a campaign staffer. You allege that your ex-husband leaked the photos without your consent after you left him. What convinced you to get back in the public arena, write this book, and launch a political action committee?

Katie Hill: Honestly, even when I was resigning, I felt this responsibility to all of the people who worked on my campaign, who had believed in me. The decision to resign was hard enough, but I felt like if I were to totally disappear I would be doing a disservice and that I would be letting them down even further. I decided I needed some time, but immediately I thought I needed to get back into working on the mission that I thought was so important and having the experience that I did brought into even sharper focus that it has to be around getting true equality for women.

So the organization that I started, Her Time, is intended to help more women get into public office, especially young women, women of color, people who are in these long shot kind of races, and to engage and mobilize young women as a voting group, and to fight for the issues I lay out in "She Will Rise," which are the fundamental legislative issues that I think will bring us to equality. But the bottom line is that we need to get more women into office and I felt like me disappearing wouldn't help that and, in fact, might hurt it.

BI: After your experience with cyber exploitation, you teamed up with some victims' rights attorneys to potentially sue the Daily Mail, which published some of the photos. What's the status of that legal work? Would you like to see your ex-husband criminally prosecuted under revenge porn laws?

KH: Yes, I'd love to see him prosecuted and the investigation is ongoing. I honestly have no idea why these things take so long, but I suppose that's the nature of the criminal justice system. It's pretty telling to me that someone as high profile as I am, who's got direct access to the US Attorney's office, who are the ones who have the case — if it's this hard for me to get the resources for my case to be pursued, it's so much harder for the average woman who's going through something like this. So that's one of the pieces of advocacy that needs to happen is that victims need to be able to hold their victimizers accountable. So that's one thing.

The second is on the civil side, we are planning to file. We have been waiting on a date for it, for a couple of reasons, one of which is we wanted to finalize my divorce with my ex-husband, but he still won't sign the papers. Because of Covid the court date keeps getting pushed back further and further. So we're having to reassess our strategy and it may end up being the lawsuit happens while I'm still married to him. Either way, that's coming very soon and I think that's something that's important. It's going to be a tough case — it's kind of this intersection of the First Amendment and the right to privacy and where that line is drawn. We expect this to be a tough court battle, but I think it's important for how we set the standard for the way women are treated as they run for office and are in the public eye, no matter what their circumstance is.

BI: In your book, you call your relationship with a campaign staffer a "mistake," but you stop short of characterizing it as unethical. Would you say it was an abuse of power?

KH: I think if you're just to look at it from the outside then yes, you can call it an abuse of power. The reason I stopped short of that is that on the campaign when we first started and our relationship started, it was so early and it felt so much more like a team of people. We were this grassroots campaign that had no shot, it wasn't like I was a member of Congress already, it wasn't like I was even this well-established candidate. There were three people who were working on this together. It was a mistake. If I were to look at it in any outside circumstances, then I would say it is unethical and I can own that. I think the very fact of that is why I feel so determined to put my effort in this work, even when it would be so much easier to stay away from the public eye and do something else. Political consulting is an option that probably would make more money than what I'm doing now.

BI: You mention in your book that you believe in redemption for abusers. What do you think that process of redemption should look like in the #MeToo era?

KH: When I say I believe in redemption, I mean that I believe in redemption as a concept. I think that people who make any kind of mistake — one act does not define a person and that a good person might do bad things and how do we assess that on the whole. I don't think we as a society have figured that out. Look at our criminal justice system. Does 30 years in prison, does that qualify you as having been redeemed? Is it a personal thing having to do with you and religion and whatever terms you come to in your own conscience. Or is it acts of service, is it something else entirely? For me, I think that's something we need to grapple with and I'm trying to chart my own course on what I think it's gonna take to earn redemption. I don't think I'm there yet, but I'm certainly trying.

BI: You've been very candid about some of the most personal and painful experiences in your life. Other young women in politics — including "Squad" members like congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar — have also been very open about their own personal struggles. Do you think it's fair to ask women entering politics to be this vulnerable and exposed?

KH: I don't know that there's anything fair in politics, especially when it comes to how women are treated and what's expected of us. I do think, though, that part of what has made our generation of young women running for politics different is that we are talking about these things, we are genuine, and we're trying to be as transparent as possible in sharing our lived experiences that are so common across the spectrum. I think that's part of what makes it powerful, I think it's part of what motivates people, just people getting involved, because they can relate. They can say, ok, this is a real person, this is someone who's been through the same kind of struggles I have and who's working to change it and who's made it through, which is why I talk about it in the book. I don't think there's a fairness element to it at all, but I think it's something that when you're able to, whether you're a male politician or a female politician, I think sharing your personal stories and even those parts that are really, really difficult to share, I think can have a big impact on people.

BI: You're working with women who are thinking about running for office or who are for the first time. Have you talked to candidates who are scared off by that kind of exposure?

KH: Absolutely. It's one of the first things people ask me is: 'With what happened to you, what's your advice?' And honestly the biggest thing that I say is that what happened to me is probably the worst-case scenario. So think about that and how you would handle it and if you had been in my position what you would have done. If you can work through that exercise, then you will be able to handle whatever it is that comes to you. And it's a lot to ask, it is true public service to say you're going to have to stand up to something that's really awful, but we need you. And the reason that you're here as someone who is running for office is that you're tough as nails. There are people who will support you no matter what and you've got a whole sisterhood of women who've been in similar situations that are there to have your back. So I don't think my advice is the most encouraging, except for to say I'm here, I'm alive, I'm not going away and hopefully that's encouraging to other women.

BI: You briefly wrote about how women were among your biggest critics on the campaign trail. And during the Democratic primary, your male opponent won far more women voters than you did. Why do you think that is?

KH: I think we all have an internalized vision of what makes a powerful person or what makes a leader. And that's contradictory with the things we want to see in women. Qualities like ambition — we're seeing this in the VP race — speaking up, being assertive, being risk-taking, all of those are seen as positives when they're in a man, but when they're in a woman we often tear them down. That's something that even as women we do against other women and I think we have to really be cognizant of that and aware of it.

To be clear, and I think this is important too, the gap with women that I had against my opponent was specifically with women over the age of 45. And since women over the age of 45 tend to be much heavier voters that made up for the gap, but I won by 15-20 points with women under that age. So I think we are as a generation and as time progresses becoming more aware of that and not having that same kind of harshness towards each other. But hopefully we can start to see the same kind of desire to uplift each other across the board.

BI: Your district just elected a Republican — Mike Garcia — by a pretty wide margin in the special election to replace you in May. Why do you think your former constituents went for a conservative Republican? Should this be concerning for Democrats in swing districts across the country?

KH: The special election to replace me was a runoff, which made it a May election. It was the only thing on the ballot and it was the first in the state of California that was done all by mail. So it was an election that people weren't aware of, Covid had just happened so any kind of field campaign that would've run on the Democratic side was cancelled. Democrats depend on turnout, that was the case in 2018 when I won and that will be the case in the fall. When people don't turn out, the ones that do, reliably, are older, white, and Republican. And that's what we saw in this May election. So there are a lot of lessons to be learned from that and those are being taken into account as we move into November.

But, importantly, the November election will have an entirely different electorate, which is far more favorable to a Democratic candidate. So I'm optimistic we'll be able to flip the seat again. And Christy Smith, the Democratic nominee, she's really talented, she'd be a great legislator and she'd be someone who is representative of the district. Mike Garcia is in lockstep with Donald Trump and the Republican leaders. We saw Hillary Clinton won my district by seven [points], I won my district by nine [points] and that is not a coincidence, that is a representation of what the district truly wants and is moving towards. I think Mike Garcia and the special election is a blip and reflective of how hard it is for Democrats when we don't get the electorate that we need, when we aren't able to convert people into votes, when we aren't able to get that turnout.

BI: Many people voted by mail in the special election. Are you concerned that Democratic voters aren't prepared to vote by mail in the fall?

KH: It's one of my biggest concerns and I know that, across the board, the DNC, the DCCC, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, they're all working at making sure we're addressing that. But for all we hear about Donald Trump being against vote by mail, to me it's wild because Republicans historically benefit from voting by mail. That's typically the base of people who rely on it most and who use it most consistently. I do have a lot of concerns about how many voting centers are going to be closed and where people who vote every four years, let's just say that they're presidential voters, they're not consistent midterm voters, that they're not going to know what to do. They might get something in the mail, they don't trust it, they might think that it's fake, they might think well what do I do because I don't trust just mailing it back in. And they might say I'm going to wait for Election Day and go vote and then it turns out there's nowhere to vote, or the lines are so long with the limited polling places. We really, really need to be assertive and aggressive on campaigning, not just to try and convince people — I think most people have pretty much already made up their minds — it's about making sure they know how to vote and do so in the crazy conditions we have because of Covid.

BI: I know you've said you don't feel ready to run for office again at this point, but you haven't ruled it out. Under what circumstances would you run again?

KH: Oh, gosh. That's hard to even imagine. I wasn't planning to run for office in the first place and I would not have predicted a situation like what happened in 2017 when I decided to run. It's hard for me to play with that idea of what kind of a seat would open up and also what else is going on in my life. The job is really hard, it takes a deep amount of sacrifice. I know in the position I'm in now I'm able to help a lot of women who are able to make that sacrifice and who deserve a seat at the leadership table. That doesn't necessarily have to be me. I don't know that there's imminently going to be a reason for it to be me in any conceivable election, but there might be one and, if so, then I'll look into it and I guess we'll see from there.

BI: I know you live in Washington these days. Are you in touch with any of your former House colleagues?

KH: Oh, absolutely. In a way, you're in the trenches with those folks and especially my freshman colleagues. The 116th Congress is going to go down in history for a lot of fascinating and historic moments and you become close to these people and that doesn't go away. I'm grateful for those friendships and I'm grateful that the restrictions are easing a little bit so we can at least go out and have a drink outside.

BI: Joe Biden is getting ready to announce his vice presidential running mate. Who do you hope he chooses? Do you think he should pick a Black woman?

KH: I endorsed Kamala Harris for president from the very beginning of her campaign. I know her, I trust her, I think she's an incredible leader. And I was happy to support her and campaign for her from day 1. I would love to see his VP choice be Kamala. That said, everyone we're seeing in the running is talented and would add something completely different to the ticket and I have no problem with any of them.

I do think that this is the moment for a Black women with everything that we've seen in terms of the intersection of racial injustice and gender inequity and everything else in this moment. I think it's the right time for that. At the end of the day, it's about supporting this ticket that has to beat Donald Trump.

BI: I know you're launching a new podcast: Naked Politics. What will that be focused on and who are you talking with for it?

KH: The podcast is focused on basically the dirty stuff that goes on with politics, the things you often don't hear about because it's watered through a lens of secrecy or you have candidates or elected officials who are running and who don't want you to see that kind of thing and that the entire system is built on secrecy. So I'm bringing on guests that are specifically willing to talk about that kind of thing.

For example, one of my first guests is Bill Burton, who was President Obama's press secretary for his first term and then left the White House in order to start the first super PAC on the Democratic side that was in the wake of the Citizens United decision, so it allowed unlimited amounts of money to come flowing in that we knew was gonna happen on the Republican side and Democrats had to try and figure out how to do on the Democratic side. So, really talking to him about what that looked like and how what we do compares to the Republican side. And then also the world of political consulting, which is what he does. What that means, if you wanted to run where you'd even find a political consultant, what you need it for, and how they can take advantage of candidates, especially first-time candidates.

The next person I am planning on interviewing is someone who has been in DC politics on the organizational side for a very long time, who was the political director for the Teamsters and the political director for a number of different organizations, and is working as a consultant now so she's kind of got the freedom to say things that she otherwise might not. We're probably going to get into the gossipy side of things, the sordid nature of what goes on in Washington — I'm excited about that one. The purpose is to really let people see an inside view of how this whole thing works, what's wrong with it, how we can fix it, and hopefully through that understanding we can mobilize people even more.